July 14, 2013

Bake: Chocolate Lasagne

A couple of weeks back, a fellow friend of mine alerted me to the trend of The Chocolate Lasagne. The original recipe can be found at CenterCutCook - consisting of several layers of chocolate pudding, whipped cream and chocolate chips on an oreo base. The gist of it is to assemble a sort of pseudo lasagne made of different dessert components.

Ever since, I have been fervently researching (read: googling) this beautiful, beautiful creation. There are many versions of this chocolate lasagne on the internet, and when my lunch buddy announced she was having a birthday party, I knew this was the moment for this beautiful, epic dessert to shine.

Making my own chocolate lasagne required a bit of planning and a crazed, slightly unhinged rampage through the local grocery store for anything chocolate. I actually drew up a plan to make sure this epic dessert would not collapse or be layered wrongly.

You will need:

3 boxes brownie mix

2 bags marshmallows

30 oreos, crushed

3 tablespoons butter

600ml double cream

1/4 cup milk

400g 70% dark chocolate

3 cups rice krispies

I understand your fear. I was incredibly apprehensive as I started baking the components of my lasagne to prepare for assembly, but stick with me, this is worth it. If there was ever a time to move past culinary inhibitions - it is now.

Begin by baking the three brownies by following the box instructions, or use your favourite brownie recipe, you will need three individual, large brownies.

Set the brownies aside to cool completely.

Bring cream and milk to boil.

As soon as cream boils up, take it off the heat and add in chocolate pieces.

Stir until mixture is smooth and shiny.

Set aside to cool.

Crush oreos well, and mix (melted) butter into the oreo crumbs.

Press the mixture well into the bottom of pan.

Allow base to set in fridge for at least half an hour.

When base is set, arrange marshmallows on base in single layer and place in (pre-heated) oven to melt marshmallows for 5-10 minutes.

If you made it this far without going into a panic attack or an aneurism, allow me to extend my congrats. For some reason, probably due to the excitement of serving this beast up, I do not have a proper photo of the final product but I do have these:

Note: I got some photos of a fellow party-goer! (More will added as we sober up from the birthday party.)

My chocolate lasagne turned out a little messier than I thought, it would have looked a lot better with a trim along the edges to neaten it, but that's wasting chocolate. Otherwise, it was everything I visioned my lasagne to be. If anything I would have liked to make the oreo base thicker and maybe put less marshallows, but it's not like this product really needs more oreos.

If you ever decide to bake your own chocolate lasagne, keep just this one thing in mind: be as creative as you like. The components are entirely up to you, use ice cream, use fruits, use whatever biscuits you have on hand - you can go as light or as indulgent as you like. At the end of the day, this dessert is something fun, and entirely, absolutely insane.